Flocking is the well-known process of adhering one end of a relatively short length of fiber, generally acrylic, nylon, rayon, other plastic or cotton to the substrate to be flocked. In the typical flocking process, the substrate is unwound from a roll, an adhesive is applied to a surface and pre-cut flock fibers are sifted onto the adhesive coated surface under an electrostatic charge so that the flock fibers stand on end. The flocked substrate is then dried and wound into a roll. The resulting flocked surface has a soft, velvety feel that is frequently used as linings for display cases for personal items such as jewelry, perfume and writing instruments and for packaging, upholstery, apparel and other industrial applications.
Flocked material also can be printed. Known practices typically print on flock adhered to fabric, paper and vinyl and polyester film substrates. Most known printing techniques generally require expensive high speed large volume printing operations and require investment in machinery and labor that is beyond all but significant commercial operations. Currently known practices do not permit such commercial operations or others to conveniently or inexpensively make small runs of printing on flocked paper or films, and do not permit non-commercial operations to print on flocked paper or films.